Sealable container



Sept. 4, 1956 T. B. SHIU 2,751,613

SEALABLE CONTAINER Filed Dec. 8, 1954 IN V EN TOR.

United States Patent SEALABLE CONTAINER Thomas B. Shin, Chicago, 111., assignor of one-third to Thomas N. Cummings, Chicago, and one-third to Ben jamin R. Peterson, Jr., Wheaton, Ill.

Application December 8, 1954, Serial No. 473,811

3 Claims. (Cl. 229-64) This invention relates to a sealable' container which initially is fiat in form but upon expanding forms a conical container. The container is particularly adapted to the method of closing and forming into the rockettype container disclosed in copending application Serial No. 470,926, filed November 24, 1954, by Thomas N. Cummings, Benjamin R. Peterson, Jr., and Thomas B. Shiu.

As disclosed in the copending application, it has been impossible to get a rolled conical container at a price such that competition from a simple bag can be met. The spread between the cost of the paper and the finished product is too great. On a request for bids on a satisfactory container, as contrasted with a blank, William R. Saidel of Chicago, Illinois, offered a V-shaped container which consists of two separate sheets of paper glued to each other along two edges to form two outwardly directed seams. This container is shown in Figure 1. How this container is formed is immaterial to the applicant. It could be formed on a standard conical cup machine and flattened, or it could be made of a single piece of paper folded along one edge and glued along the other to provide an outwardly directed seal, or it can be made of two sheets of paper as shown in Figure 1.

Applicants object is to adapt this container to apparatus for forming the open end into vanes so that the finished closed container will have the appearance of a threeor four-vane rocket as disclosed in the copending application. The features of this invention are two cuts in the seam and scoring so that one of Mr. Saidels type of paper containers can be operated upon in accordance with the method disclosed in the copending application.

This and such other objects as may hereinafter appear are attained in the embodiment of the invention shown in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of one of applicants flat, conical containers;

Figure 2 is a view taken on the line 22 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a view taken on the line 3-3 of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a view taken on the line 4-4 of Figure 1, but after sealing;

Figure 5 is a perspective view of the container with a sugar cone and ice cream therein after it has been sealed;

Figure 6 is an enlargement of the dot-dash square of Figure l; and

Figure 7 is a plan view schematically showing four heat-sealing elements for forming a four-vaned rocket ice cream cone.

Continuing to refer to the drawings, the flat container upon which applicant has made his improvements consists of two flat pieces of paper having a sector shape, and bearing numbers 10 and 12. These are joined to each other by ribbons or bands of glue or other adhesive 14 and 16 along the two radial edges, see Figure 2. The joined portions may be described as outwardly directed 2,761,613 Patented Sept. 4, 1956 seams 18 and 20. The inside faces of the two sectors 10 and 12 normally carry a waxed surface which itself is suflicient to form a seal. These layers are indicated by the numerals 22 and 24, see Figure 3. However, the wax seal is usually not as strong as one that can be obtained by inserting a layer of adhesive 26 and 28, see Figure 3. When the two layers shown in Figure 3 are properly pressed together with heat, the wax adjacent the adhesive layers 10 and 12 is squeezed out and the adhesive layers fuse into the layer 30 as shown in Figure 4.

The problem of establishing the vane-shaped closed end in accordance with copending application is rendered difficult by the two seams 18 and 20. The heatsealing elements which move toward the axis of the container after it is filled, act with a snap action. The movement is so fast that one can scarcely see the elements as they move from open to closed position. The effect of the seam, even where the four-vane element equipment is used is to disturb the cone and its contents in a way which impairs the finished quality of the product. The seam is too stiff to permit satisfactory reshaping at the top. In order to solve this problem, applicant has placed a cut extending from the outer edge of the seam almost to the inner edge of the glue mark. Referring to Figure 6, which is an enlargement of the dot-dash square of Figure 1, the cut or slit 32, the width of which is exaggerated, extends from the edge 34 of the seam to a point 36 about inch away from the line 38 which is a slight groove in the paper caused by the dies in joining the two sheets of paper together. The line 38 also represents the edge of the adhesive.

If nothing else is done, applicant can form the fourvane rocket type container disclosed in the copending application without difiiculty, even though the upper portions 40 and 42 are not made into the vanes. As a practical matter, however, this is not desirable. The two upper portions of the seams 40 and 42 are apart when the container is open for filling, and by equipment for registering these seams with the snap closure elements shown in the copending application, these two seams can be used for two vanes of the four-vane rocket. As a practical matter, this is the way that the type of container here shown will be closed.

To assist the closing, applicant has provided a radial scoring 44 which extends toward the apex from the open edge to a distance below the level of the adhesive, or if no adhesive is used, to a point below which the closure members will engage the upper container. This scoring is extended by scoring 46 and 43 to a point just short of the line of adhesive. Intermediate the seam and the next adjacent scoring such as 44 is an equally deep scoring such as 50 and 52. It is immaterial whether the scoring is concave or convex with respect to the surface of the container.

After the container has been opened and has been filled, when four heating elements such as 54, 56, 58 and 60 are snapped into the dotted-line position 62, the upper part of the container breaks as illustrated in Figure 7, the scoring lines being shown in this figure and in Figure 5.

The result is a conical paper container which will exclude all dirt and which possesses substantial strength.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. A flat container comprising two registered sectorshaped blanks, a layer of adhesive having a selected width joining the two blanks together along their radial edges so as to form two outwardly directed seams, and a cut through each seam extending from the seams outer edge to a point short of the inside edge of the adhesive layer and at a distance sufficiently far from the arcuate edge so that after extending the container into a cone, the top may be closed without deforming the cone shape below the cuts.

2. A flat container comprising two registered sectorshaped blanks, a layer of adhesive having a selected width joining the two blanks together along their radial edges so as to form two outwardly directed seams, a cut through each seam extending from the seams outer edge to a point short of the inside edge of the adhesive layer and at a distance sufficiently far from the arcuate edge so that after extending the container into a cone, the top may be closed without deforming the cone shape below the cuts, and a radially directed scoring extending from the arcuate edge of each Wall of the container midway between the scams.

3. A fiat container comprising two registered sectorshaped blanks, a layer of adhesive having a selected width joining the two blanks together along their radial edges so as to form two outwardly directed seams, a cut through each seam at a selected distance from the arcuate edge extending from the seams outer edge to a point short of the inside edge of the adhesive layer, a radially directed scoring extending from the arcuate edge of each wall of the container midway between the seams, said scoring extending from the arcuate edge by approximately the same distance as the cut is from that edge, and an arcuate scoring connecting the end of each radial scoring to each cut.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,007,918 Chambers Nov. 7, 1911 1,599,267 Amos Sept. 7, 1926 2,099,412 Seidler Nov. 16, 1937 2,200,111 Bensel May 7, 1940 FOREIGN PATENTS 860,744 France July 7, 1939 

